May Reads

May has been another fab month of good reads for me. Definitely a mixed bag of genres over the 5 books I've read. We are going on holiday for a week this month so i'm hoping to get more reading done in the evening's and hopefully will get through more reads too. I've not read any magazines this month as breathe is once every two months but I've now got the latest copy to enjoy for June.

 Read this if you want to be Instagram famous

A handy book when it comes to knowing more about Instagram and how to use your account to make the most of it. This was the first book I read this month and one I'm going to flick through from time to time for inspiration. It's definitely a great coffee table style book.

The Muse By Jessie Burton

I read this one as part of the bloggers book nook book club where the theme for May was about historical fiction. This book was the only one in my TBR pile that I felt fit in with that theme. I found it a slow starter and not one I'd read again though as I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.

The Breakdown by B.A.Paris

I loved B.A.Paris's debut behind closed doors that I read last year. If you have enjoyed behind closed doors than you may enjoy The breakdown. I found it to be a book I just couldn't put down and really enjoyed. 

"If you can't trust yourself, who can you trust?"

Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside—the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she’d stopped.

But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing: where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn’t have a baby.

The only thing she can’t forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt.

Or the silent calls she’s receiving, or the feeling that someone’s watching her…

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Jodi is one of my favourite authors and I wish I had read this sooner. Definitely my favourite book I've read this month and I love how Jodi writes about such difficult topics.

Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy's counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other's trust, and come to see that what they've been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.

With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn't offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game. 

The woman in cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

After being introduced to Ruth Ware by another blogger last month with the book in a dark, dark wood. I had to read more of her books so I purchased this one and another that I had found in a local charity shop. It's a goodish book however I just couldn't like the main character Lo which was disappointing. 

Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo's desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong. 

Have you read any of these books? What will you be reading this month?